Auction Aids Reforestation

Karen Pierce Gonzalez, Special to The Chronicle

Published 4:00 am, Friday, April 6, 2001

Trees have always been a part of life for Paul Estenson of Sebastopol. Early days of cowboy play near groves of coastal redwoods, rose gardens and hybrid fruit trees in Danville filled him with a great love for the natural world.

That feeling is still very much alive for Estenson, 59, who is executive director of the Healdsburg-based EarthWalk Environmental Council. The nonprofit organization has just initiated an environmentally friendly Internet auction to help fund its reforestation and education programs for Northern California.

Everything from bird feeders and household goods to classic cars are available on the Web site, www.earthauction .com. It's even got links to "green" manufacturers.

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Estenson said that buyers and sellers alike will be able to conduct business as usual while helping EarthWalk with its plans to help replace forest land that has been heavily timbered or severely damaged by natural disasters.

"We are talking about providing work crews composed of deferred people from the court system," said Estenson of EarthWalk's pilot program, now under discussion with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service.

Established in 1997, the nonprofit also offers education programs for schoolchildren and has developed "Where The Trees Have Gone," a video presentation for schools and organizations interested in learning more about reforestation.

According to Lynne Hartman, Timber Management Officer of the Mendocino National Forest, a program such as EarthWalk could help them accomplish a variety of projects, including wildlife habitat improvement, foot and horse trail maintenance and replanting trees.

"Additionally, we are interested in pursuing the possibility of developing one or two organized fire crews with EarthWalk personnel," wrote Hartman, who invited Estenson to speak to Forest Leadership Team personnel yesterday.

So far, EarthWalk's idea to develop a tree corps closely supervised and trained by U.S. Forestry personnel has been warmly received, and that pleases Estenson and the 30 EarthWalk activists who come from every corner of Sonoma County and beyond.

They say the platform-style camps in remote forest areas, which would cost approximately $180,000 per mobile unit, can be a win-win situation for all. Besides providing a labor force, the council intends to develop contingent vocational training opportunities for work crews in such fields as equipment maintenance, horticulture, and even culinary arts. Each camp will have a chef who can teach others about food, explained Estenson.

For EarthWalk board member Norman Marshall of Sacramento, owner of Day Construction, EarthWalk's goal to help reforest timberland makes a lot of business sense as well.

"Trees are a resource my industry relies upon," said Marshall, whose company works in eight states. "We've got to think in terms of the future. What would happen if we didn't have any more trees?"

The idea of bringing attention to land that has been ravaged came to Estenson's attention about five years ago -- just a year before he formed EarthWalk Environmental Council.

Involved with other environmental organizations, the self-described corporate entrepreneur who once owned an aquaculture business in Benicia, decided it wasn't enough to just stop trees from being cut.

"I drove up to the Pacific Northwest and saw where trees had been cut. The land was naked and ugly," This was far from the lush playground of his youth. "I knew then we had to re-establish whatever forest land we could."

It's only common sense to replant trees where they have been cut down, said Andy Rodgers of Environment Community and Opportunity Network, an independent consultant firm that works with many Sonoma County municipalities, including Petaluma and Santa Rosa.

"In a heavily forested area there's incredible erosion," said Rodgers, a Cotati resident. "Reforestation can start to stabilize the land so that it doesn't end up in the creek system." Wildlife and plants are dependent upon that system.

Trees are an important part of any watershed-enhancement technique, he noted. Not only do the fish come back because of the shade trees offer, but trees are an effective option for cleaning up other contaminants, such as fertilizer.

Rodgers, who also serves on the steering committee for the Petaluma Watershed Foundation, said that replacing trees "is not a crazy, hippie idea. It's something that even farmers in Iowa have been doing for a very long time."